Aliss Makes Debut as Bangladesh Elect to Bat First Against Afghanistan

In a bid to reach the tri-nation ODI series final, Bangladesh captain Towhid Hridoy opted to bat first against Afghanistan after winning the crucial toss at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today. Team batting first in the UAE generally wins the game as the stat showed but Bangladesh must win more than 40 runs to reach the final. Bangladesh lost their first game to Zimbabwe by 99 runs while Afghanistan crushed Zimbabwe by 158 runs.

The margin of victory enhanced Afghans net-run- rate to an uncanny degree. Which almost guaranteed their place in the final unless they suffer a defeat by an improbable 217 runs margin against Bangladesh. Bangladesh handed ODI debut to mystery spinner Aliss Al Islam and also made several changes for the must-win game. Mehidy Hasan Miraz returned to the squad after missing the first game because of illness while Parvez Hossain Emon, who replaced injured Liton Das, would play his first ODI after a gap of one year.

Rishad Hossain, Mosaddekh Hossain Saikat and Nurul Hasan Sohan were left out. "First of all, we need to assess the wicket. Then we can decide what it will be. Probably we will try to get a good start," Hridoy said after the toss. "Everything is okay (despite the defeat against Zimbabwe). We just need to believe in ourselves. We have the ability and if we can utilize that, then it will be okay."

Afghanistan, however, made two changes from the winning squad with Yamin Ahmedzai and Bilal Sami replacing Fazalhaq Farooqi and Ziaur Rahman. Bilal claimed five wickets to help Afghanistan win by 200 runs against Bangladesh in their last encounter at the same venue just a year ago. "If we win the toss, we would also choose to bat first," Afghanistan captain Rahmat Shah said.

"But we just need to bowl on the channel, just show discipline and consistency, not thinking how many runs we stop there." Line Ups: Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Saif Hassan, Towhid Hridoy(c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Parvez Hossain Emon(w), Aliss Al Islam, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Bilal Sami, Yamin Ahmadzai.